Monday, October 11, 2010

As I was reading through my blog reel this morning, I ran across this interesting article on AdAge on how marketing and advertising to singles has shifted in the past few years. It really got me thinking how drastically the number of married people in this age range has decreased since 2000...not since the 60s...but the year 2000! Wonder why that is? I'm not saying it's bad or negative, in a lot of ways I think it's great. I mean, I am contributing to this drastic shift myself.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

About a 3 months ago I had my 10-year high school reunion back in Hereford, TX.

Hereford's cool. It's the most relaxing place for me to go. When I go back, all I do is hang with my family, eat at Sonic, and walk my parent's dog. That's about it.

The reunion was fun. I mean how can a rodeo arena with beer-filled livestock feeding troughs and about 80 classmates trying to figure out how to impress people they see every ten years not be fun?! Seriously.

I had a ton of fun catching up with people I hadn't seen in a decade.

If I had a scanner I would have scanned picture of what I looked like in high school. But just for your imagination, picture an acne-stricken face, about 30 pounds lighter, Tommy Hilfiger from head to toe, and a rad braided leather belt at all times.

So here's what I learned/noticed from my reunion weekend:

• 10 years goes by really quick when you think about it. Really fast. I hope life slows down a bit.

• Everyone is "best friends" after 10 years. I mean, there were people I don't know if I ever talked to in high school and all of the sudden we were chumming it up like old pals.

• Tommy Hilfiger and Doc Martin's aren't timeless.

• You can get a lot better looking in ten years.

• You can get a lot worse looking in ten years.

• Thanks to Accutane, my looks dramatically changed since my senior year of high school.

• It's quickly evident who has faced their high school insecurities and dealt with them...and even more obvious who hasn't.

• It's way better to not peak in high school. WAY better. i would go as far as to say it's better to not be popular in high school. It gives you a false sense of reality.

• Why did I care so much about impressing people in high school or hanging out with cool people? Sucks I didn't realize it then.

• Ten years of unresolved bitterness doesn't look good on anyone.

• After high school, it's important to surround yourself with quick-witted people in life. They rub off on you and make you sharper.

• Having kids makes you a more joyful and content person. I was like 1 or 3 people at the reunion without kids. It was really cool to see friends interact with their kids...and curiously, some of them had a lot of kids! A lot more than I thought was physically possible in ten years for sure.

• The people you most want to be around are the ones who don't care what others think.

• Post reunion, you remember who seemed the happiest, not who looked the best.

• Not being the most popular in high school makes it really easy to exceed everyone's expectation after 10 years

Monday, August 2, 2010

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Some friends of mine in Oklahoma are having a baby and for the first time in my life I have found myself scouring the Internet for a gift. I have followed this British illustrator's blog, Paul Thurlby, for several years now and I remembered these sweet alphabet illustrations he sells. As I sit in my condo tonight and peruse the night away looking at baby shiz, I'm tempted to buy one or more of his prints and then think of a boy's name that starts with the letter on the prints that I like the most. Kinda works, eh? S, F, A, and H are my favorites.

Pretty sweet, huh?

I supposed I could name my son SHAF and buy all of them! Hmmm. I better talk that over with the future Mrs..

Monday, July 12, 2010

Summer used to be my least favorite season. Winter was my favorite. Not sure why. I think it may have been that I preferred coats and jeans to swim trunks and thongs....excuse me, flip flops. (That sure has taken on a new meaning the past decade.) But over the past 5 years or so summer has far surpassed every other season. I love sitting on my patio with a book in the evenings with a cold glass of water with a fresh-squeezed lime in it looking across the the horizon at the mountains. Ok, so last night was the first time I have ever read a book on my patio and I kinda have to imagine the mountains from my patio. And I use the patio loosely. It more like a front porch where a table and 2 chairs barely fit because my air conditioner. Oh the joys of condo rentals in the slums of Lake Forest.

All this to say, summer is my new favorite season. Here are my favorite places to be. I'll call them Riley's Super Summer Hotspots.

Montage Beach for relaxing and swimmingThis was the first beach I ever went to in California and it's still my favorite. Easy access, relatively close parking, clean Montage bathrooms, grocery store nearby for last-minute snacks, courteous tourists.Gypsy Den @ The Lab for eatingThe Lab is mecca for post-tween posers who have run up daddy's American Express Black card at Urban Outfitters and American Apparel...but it's one of my favorite places. And the waldorf chicken salad sandwich and vegetarian chili and cornbread rivals the best.Fashion Island for relaxingBy far the best place to shop, browse, dog watch, people watch, dog-looking people watch, people-looking dog watch.Coliseum at Pelican Hill for eatingSwanky hotel + mid-priced poolside restaurant = dust off your fancy clothes and grab a few dollars to tip the valetLake Mission Viejo for runningYeah, it's man made and small but it's got a stellar running track around it that is exactly 3.14 miles (ironically that is also π...coincidence? Doubt it.)

Sunday, June 27, 2010

So, a few weeks ago I went to Napa Valley for the first time. Actually, it was the first time I had been north of Bakersfield since I've lived in California. And holy crap, I don't know why I haven't been up there yet. The best way to describe it is like a California farmland. It's a perfect blend of California and Texas. You've got the open space and agriculture like Texas, with the climate and personality of California. It quickly became one of my favorite places I have ever visited.

This trip included myself, Allie, Jake and Tim.

Allie's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Bircher, own an incredible vineyard in Napa where we stayed called Meadowbrook Farm.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

A few weekends ago I went to Dallas to be the best man in my buddy Geoffrey's wedding.

Sidenote, his name is pronounced the British way. He should spell his name "Joffrey." It would simplify his life so much more, but whatever. I have a girl's/dog's name, so who am I to talk.

The first night the guys went out to The Butcher Shop in the West End for dinner and then spent the rest of the night at the West End Pub catching up. I hadn't seen most of these guys in about 5 years.

The wedding was great too. I have never been so hot in my life. Seriously. Never. Except maybe that one time I was in Cairo, Egypt in the DESERT!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Like I said in my last post, my family is crap with pets. The official death toll is at 10, but I'm sure there were a few other unlucky souls who I forgot.

• Psalty the parakeet (1988) - Dad forgot to feed him while we went to Dallas on vacation. He just fell off his little perch and died.

• Hermit crab (1988) - I never named it because I never liked it. It was a gift. It just died in it's shell of natural causes I'm sure due to an emotionally-distant caretaker.

• 2 baby chicks (1989) - I don't know what happened for sure, they just disappeared. Probably ran away together after my sister threw one of them up in the air after it pooped in her hand.

• cat (the name slips my mind) (1992) - It was a cold January night when we gave it a bath and put it in the garage. Well, wet cat + freezing temperatures = dead cat, fried-to-death trying to stay warm under the refrigerator in the garage.

• Spanky the lab/pit bull mix (1993) - taken to the dad's feedyard to be a "cow dog"...the feedyard is where our pets go to die

• Snuffy the rabbit (1993) - Accidently left him in the front yard and the next door neighbor's dog bit his head off. The psychological effects of finding that headless rabbit still affects my sister to this day.

• Andre and Peter the rabbits (1994) - Our second-go at rabbits. We left them in our side backyard in their cage and forgot about them. Peter ended up being pregnant. Finding them a week later was a bit traumatizing for me.

• No Name the cat (1995) - Yep. That was his name. After Milli's second litter, we were fresh-out of names so that's what he got stuck with. He was squashed as mom was backing the suburban out of the garage. She felt pretty bad about it.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

I don't know if it's because there are no kids in the house or what, but my mom got a dog. Let me rephrase. She adopted a dog from the Deaf Smith County pound. I guess it belongs to both my parents, but my mom talks about it the most. Except my dad talked about it a lot when it fell out of his pickup window when he let it sit on his lap as he was driving his pickup to get it washed. I'm super glad it lived, because most of our pets die. I'll address this in my next post.

Ruthie is her name. She is some kind of mutt. She's cute though. I actually like her which is more than I can say more most animals. See...

I know I don't look very excited, but I am. I love this dog. It doesn't bark or jump. It just eats and like attention. I can handle that. That's my dad in the background. I know he's thinking, "I wonder how long this dog's gonna last..."

So my mom just got a phone with a camera for Christmas. And she loves it (and you're about to find out why). These are the last few texts I've gotten from her:

Text from mom: "Good morning! Yes this is my life."

Text from mom: "Ruthie just came home from the beauty shop with major electricity!"

Text from mom: "Ruthie taking a nap while you and dad are on the phone."

Text from mom: "This is the last one I'll send tonight. You might want to use this as your desktop wallpaper."

Text from mom: "She looks like she misses you."

Text from mom: "It's snowing again!"

Text from mom: "Ruthie likes to look out the window and watch cars go by in the morning."

I warned my mom that I was going to feature her texts on my blog so she sent me this:

Text from mom: "Since Ruthie is going to be a blog topic soon, I thought I'd get serious about my photography. :)"

So, I know I'm a little late. Mother's day was last like a week and half ago, but I want to say I love my mom. I love her so much more than I can express on this blog entry. And I love when she texts me with her new highfalutin camera phone. Happy super-late mother's day, mom. I love you...and I want you to move to California as soon as possible! Texas is too far away.